Girl Scout Troop 2316 may be small, but they have a big mission. The troop consists of five girls: Fauna, Amighlyn, Rylie, Neshama and Neva, who meet every week in Leimert Park to work on something special.
For their Silver and Bronze awards, the troop decided to research period poverty, which turned into their passion project called "the red box." These boxes provide free information and menstrual products.
"It's really something that's always been on our radar, and we've always kind of been like that's not how it should be, that doesn't make any sense especially when half the population menstruates," said Fauna Schutt.
Period poverty is when someone is not able to have essential menstrual care and products
"We have a box of pads. We are kind of interested in also having tampons, but for now we are just starting with pads, and then we have a reading list and a period tracker which you can use to track your period," said Amighlyn Hammers.
Each box comes with a QR code with information and a survey that will help this troop evolve this project throughout the years.
These five girl scouts have put in plenty of time selling cookies and other items during their fall fundraiser to fund this project. They've partnered up with local businesses and the Jefferson library to give these red boxes away to anyone who may need menstrual products, completely free and no questions asked.
Love Market and Café is one of the locations that carries the red box, and its representative says it likes being able to support the scout's mission.